this porridge is too hot

This porridge pumped the fugg out of me: hangs_20110224_1.xlsx. Massive failure occurred around the halfway point.

This porridge was just right: hangs_20110224_2.xlsx

welcome to Hurtsville, population: me

It was about last Thursday that I said I would not do another 40-minute hangboard routine. That sentiment lasted until yesterday when I conceived of a 40-minute routine that would be harder. So, It sucked. But I’m psyched I did it. I did actually do it too. And I’m going to hold up this routine as my gnastiest to date. It was supremely gnasty and I believe it represents significant improvement in my endurance or, at least, in my hangboarding capacity.

hangs_20110221.xlsx

in a word: long

I went for the 40-minute set yesterday. It was long. It was more than I care to do again. Music helped. My skin started to fall apart causing me to miss an early set taping a tear on my right ring finger. That’s ok – I enjoyed the remaining 92 sets. Total time hanging was 15:18. By the time a pump started in my forearms, around minute 28, I was super warmed up; so it wasn’t the sharp, searing kind of pump. It was manageable. There never was much doubt I would finish. I planned this routine to span only 1.5 sine periods over its entirety. That meant back-to-back sets on constant holds. This turned out to be really enjoyable, giving me some time to acclimate in a single position.

hangs_20110216.xlsx

this would be easier with Tony

Yesterday’s hangboard session was good stuff. Finally my plan is coming together. Small holds felt small. Big holds felt pumpy. I’m getting a practical sense for how to combine varying durations and intensities to simulate what feels like a full-length sport route. So I’m getting pumped. And my performance, in these sets anyway, is improving, specifically and noticeably.

hangs_20110215.xlsx

Yesterday felt so good I’m thinking today I’ll increase an 18-minute set to 40. Super scientific, I know. But if I save my breath I feel a man like me can manage it. Clearly this would be easier with Tony Horton.

PS – This would not actually be easier with Tony. I would actually be really bummed if he worked out with me on the hangboard. Tony’s hair is stupid.

From Thursday With Love

It’s Monday but this hangboard set is from Thursday. It was a bit scary. Being my third consecutive day of hangboard sets, plus climbing, my fingers were feeling breakable. Note to self: warm up better (dumbass). And this set was generally difficult to get through. I was late on a few starts. On a fresh day, however, this same program would probably be no problem.

hangs_20110210.xlsx

This Excel workout generator I’ve got going here has evolved into something good.

Yeah fun last night on your property my animal though we’re trying to reach HI.

If you want to make getting phone calls not suck get Google Voice and enable the Voicemail Transcripts feature. It’s priceless. It’s like discovering an exotic island, teaching the natives to speak English real quick, then having them text you complex messages.

I had another go at an 18-minute hangboard routine yesterday. It was rad. That is, I finished it this time, and it felt not like death. My skin felt bad, I’m sure from a proper Tuesday at the Shed, but most of that went away after ~6 minutes. This was not a majorly pumpy ordeal to my surprise. There was moderate pumpination happening but nothing out of control. The short load/small hold sets felt easy while the long load/big hold sets were grueling – an observation I will take into account for today’s session.

hangs_20110209.xlsx

today’s weight: 176.4 lbs

stupid people don’t deserve to be strong

Yesterday’s hangboard session went down before I bounced over to the Shed for some proper fitness. I had intended to use the few minutes planned for hangs as a warm up. Instead I printed an 18-minute routine that shut me down at ~14:20. Clearly I am the master of my own impulses.

hangs_20110208.xlsx

This Excel workout generator now has a column for planning hold combinations. I added a rating scale for hold difficulty and mapped those values to a function that inversely corresponds to hang duration. There are some parameters that need tweaking.

Superboard Sunday

Since the Superbowl is lame I got some hangboarding in yesterday. This was my second go at a 9-minute set and it felt way less pumpy than the first. I did tweak the intervals a bit, increasing both loads and rests a touch, but I do not believe that is what made this seem less endurance-y-ish™. Rather, my recent focus on routes and the newness of these long sets has me improving quickly for the first little bit here, I believe. There are tons of opportunities for on-the-fly efficiency tweaking within the 9 minutes these sets cover and route guys are specialized in this skill. Some medium 2-finger and mono work even got incorporated toward the end. Which reminds me to remind me: put small holds in the sine valleys, not on the peaks (dumbass).

hangs_20110206.xlsx

Right now I’m just kinda using whatever holds I want during a set but I’ll figure out recording for that. Not recording would be like climbing a route and giving no consideration for the size of the holds – which sounded super stupid in my head but now that sounds rad.

hangboarding for that endurancey stuff

I get pumped when I climb routes. So. I’m going to try this enduro-hangboarding thing on my beastmaker for a while. Take 1:

hangboard schedules

This was harder than I expected. Which I expected. I’m thinking I’ll increase load and rest intervals and stay in the 9 minute range for a spell. I was switching holds as I pleased but am thinking of a way to apply a function to that as well. Since Google Docs butchered my Excel effort I’ll explain: I put a function to load/rest intervals, in this case a sine curve, for a continuous hangboard routine, in this case 9 minutes.

* Actually, here’s a link to the Excel file at DropBox (cuz Google Docs sucks): hangs_20110201.xlsx

lunch water, keeps going and going...

I swam 3000m today, my longest routine in recent memory. It took less than 1.5 hours, which is kinda good, I think. And it went surprisingly smooth - no problems until after 2500m when everything started to cramp. This maybe is not a distance I can maintain every day. My typical 2000m in 1 hour will probably have to suffice for most sessions. But on weekends and the occasional "holiday", the ultra-distance routine could pay dividends for my fitness. Already I'm feeling the difference added volume has made to my stroke - the movement feels smoother and more efficient in all aspects. Oh, and if the masters swim club, or whatever that group of old fools is, who take up 3 lanes every afternoon is reading: suck it. You're probably thinking to yourself, "I'll just head over to the pool and swim around with my other Nazi friends...", when, out of nowhere, I punch you in the face - if you can put 30 pentagenarians in 3 lanes and swim 100s for an hour, I get to punch you in the face when you inevitably cause me to implode. And you can stop glaring at me through your stupid little swim goggles.

last water, good distance

I increased my workout distance significantly today. There was no real coherent plan - a lot of pull, pull w/ paddles, a 200 IM, and a bunch of zipperswitch drill interspersed - for a total of 2000m. That distance was the true goal. And it was no joke considering the pool is only available from 7:15 to 8:15 in the evening. I was fairly spent at the end.

total distance: 2000m

last water, back in the high life again

Today is my first day back in the pool for a couple weeks, and a few weeks since I've noted a swim routine here. Things weren't going so well with my back for a while there. This nervous condition, I guess, was sending sharp pains down the back of my left leg and I believe the lower back component of the swimming process was to blame - probably all the fly kick. In any event, a couple weeks dry seems to have alleviated the ailment. I was careful today to take things easy, incorporating very little fly kick and doing so only with a smooth, controlled, half-tempo stroke.

total distance: 1300m

last water, IM be good

My butterfly is coming together. I did a 200m IM today without passing out. Amazingly.

da numbers:

• 400m easy free/pull
• 3 x 100m free @ 2:00
• 100m fly kick drill
• 200m IM
• 200m pull
• 200m kick

total distance: 1400m

last water, IM progress

This evening's pool session felt alright. Of note was the 4 x 100 of IM strokes I did, which started with my first 100m of fly in long course. Well, 2-kick fly, but that's still progress. What by all indications should have been a flat swimming day turned in to a good workout. Just getting in the water was a challenge after the weekend's epic between the Tor and Pine Mountain. But, as usual, I'm glad I motivated to train. In total, the workout was 1500m, with focus on IM strokes and kick, 500m of kick to be exact.

last water, slow lane

I took another hit of Albuterol before getting in the pool last night. It made a little bit of a difference. My 100m free times were a touch faster than usual, but any good feelings I may have experienced from that were eclipsed by the level of talent of the human fishes next to me. Apparently yesterday was the day abnormally fast swimmers chose to workout at the Los Banos Community Pool. They were fast. I am not. Though I felt good for me, I got totally smoked, and realized I am a fat loser. Actually, that's not even accurate - there was a fat guy there who was faster than me. I'm whatever is worse than a fat loser. Maybe I'm fat on the inside.

da numbers:

• 400m easy free/zipperswitch
• 6 x 100m free @ 2:30
• coming in between 1:35 - 1:40
• 200m IM
• This hurt. But that's good cuz I've never finished an IM in long course. Yay! - Here's a cookie now stop sucking.
• 300m kick

total distance: 1500m

last water, kick or treat

Lots of kicking last night. After a quick 1000m of freestyle, zipperswitch, zipperswitch with fly kick, and butterfly, I kicked for 500m. That's probably more kicking than I've done for quite some time. It felt good, and kept feeling better the longer I went. Note to self: do more kick work. By about 200m my legs were cramping, but that went away before 350m. Towards the end I felt like I could go forever, until they closed the pool. Rad.

last water, good times

Last night's pool session was pretty good. Butterfly feels good, my freestyle is all stretched out from zipperswitch drills, my legs are hammered from lots of kicking, and I'm feeling pretty comfortable throughout the duration of my routine. I did 1300m. Good times.

last water, better every time

Wednesday night's pool session felt good. And it's about time. I wasn't too psyched on swimming for a couple months there. What with winter weather and reduced sunlight hours, I was contemplating leaving the water indefinitely. But after a few positive sessions I'm glad I stuck it out. Wednesday's focus was on freestyle, stretching out my stroke, finding a balance in the water where I can pause after the catch while not feeling as if I'm fighting to keep high in the water for a breath. The result was a strong 6 x 100m freestyle set with splits around 1:40. That's not bad considering freestyle has not been a focus lately. And to keep the intensity down with the pace up is a clear improvement over last week's iteration of this same set. Another benefit to smooth, focused technique is to relax me. When the pool feels comfortable I stay in longer and look forward to the next workout. If you're going to perform a sport a few times a week for 20 years, I believe you need to find something enjoyable in it's execution.

da numbers:

• 400m easy free/drills
• 6 x 100m free @ 2:30
• times: ~1:40
• 50m fly
• 50m easy free
• 300m kick

total distance: 1400m

last water, kinda good

Last night's pool session was kinda good. There was some freestyle and butterfly going down. Things felt smooth but I wasn't keeping track of time. And at the end I did a bunch of kick work, which brought the cramps out like a mother. Total distance: 1200m.

last water, still strugglin'

I'm strugglin' to get pool sessions over with lately. The motivation is has left me, presumably because it's winter and that's how it goes for swimmers during the dark months. Anywayz, did some freestyle last night.

da numbers:

• 300m easy free/drills
• 6 x 100m @ 2:30
• coming in around 1:40
• 100m free w/ paddles
• 200m kick

total distance: 1200m